Thursday, September 29, 2016

Some students struggle academically for the first time when concepts move from concrete ideas to abstract ways of thinking. This happens because they have weaknesses in higher order language skills. Higher order language skills, also called higher level language or metalinguistic skills, refers to advanced language processing that is an expected competence in middle school and high school. It requires both abstract and deductive verbal reasoning skills as well as the understanding of advanced vocabulary, and word relationships.

What are the Common Difficulties Associated with Higher Order Language Skills?When a student has difficulty with higher order language skills, they may struggle with any of the following:

Making connections and associations between words, sentences, or stories

Implied meaning or inferences

Social pragmatics skills

Oral and written comprehension

Writing skills

Main ideas and details

Jokes, riddles, and humor

Writing summaries and paraphrasing

Sequencing events

Cause and effect

Predicting outcomes

How Can I Help? Appropriate intervention allows students to develop the core cognitive skills and language-rich activities and games can help them master these abstract concepts. If you would like ready-made materials that can help strengthen these skills, consider my Higher Order Language Skills Bundle. This bundle offers a discounted price on a grouping of my popular publications. Click on the image below to learn more.

If you would like to watch a video on this content, click on the image below.

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Making sense of the complex weave of assistive technology devices and applications for struggling learners can be a confusing and frustrating chore. This blog talks about 15 different types of assistive technology that can benefit struggling learners with links to my favorite tools. For a more comprehensive discussion of these technologies CLICK HERE

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

As many of you know, the process of finding the best after school, academic and remedial support for your child is plagued with many challenges. Even if you have a great evaluation that discloses your child’s learning strengths and weaknesses, it is difficult to find a local professional that has the expertise that your child needs.

The Lack of Skilled, Accessible Learning Specialists is a Great Frustration for Many Parents:
This is a huge challenge for many families in rural areas. What’s more, the costs for one-to-one services can be difficult to manage and many professionals are booked solid. Finally, many parents don’t have the time in their schedule to be driving their children round town from appointment to appointment.

But Things are Changing:
Every day, more and more trained tutors, learning specialists, and educational therapists have adopted online tools that allows them to provide high quality, multisensory academic and remedial support to our kids through the Internet.

But Many Important Questions Need to Be Addressed:

How does one find skilled professionals online?

What do all those titles mean, and which option is best for my child?

How do I determine if they have the right skills?

How do I figure out if they are the right person for my child?

My colleague and friend, Dr. Michael Hart and I would like to help you:
We have just launched a 4-part online workshop (and downloadable materials) that addresses all these questions and more!

We cover topics including:

The benefits of online instruction and remediation.

The types of key professionals that support students through online platforms.

How and where to find the best person to work with your child.

The 14 best questions to ask when you interview prospective online candidates.

What online instruction and remediation sessions should look like--including a video demonstration.

Most importantly, when you register we’re going to provide you with two PDF documents that summarize the content and will help educate you, organize your search, and provide you the resources so you can find the best support for your child.Come Watch this Blog Post as a Video:

I have created an online support platform and course for creating a successful, private practice for tutors, learning specialists and educational therapists. What's more, I will be adding additional courses over the next year. If you want to be kept abreast of this project, be sure to sign up for my project newsletter that will be offering freebies and unique opportunities: CLICK HERE. If you would like to learn more about the courses that are currently available CLICK HERE.

Multisensory Multiplication and Division to Melodies CD - MMDM

Kangaroo Metric Conversions

College Essay Workshop

Eclectic Teaching Approach

Noodle the Noun Hound

Preppy the Preposition Penguin

Fraction Golf, Hockey and More

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